My name is Joan, and I'm what you would call “a crazy cat lady.” I mean this in the nicest possible way. After all, my love for kittens and cats has made me an expert on the topic, and I'm here to share that with you!

Despite what the movies and TV shows may want you to believe, there's a lot of work that goes into bringing a kitten home, raising him or her correctly, and making it through the first year together. I'm not saying that to scare you, but it is essential to understand that bringing home a kitten is as severe as bringing home a baby. So I'm here to give you a fully inclusive “go-to guide” on assessing, treating and managing every imaginable situation with your lovely kitten’s very delicate first year of life.

I'm passionate about it. My kitten adventure started in my late teens, when I took in some foster kittens that needed a temporary home. It was overwhelming, to say the least, but it opened my eyes to the whole kitten-based world in terms of all of the work and joy that goes into it. I started writing down tricks and ideas on scraps of paper to remember everything that would help make the complex parts easier. I researched food, training (yes, you can train a cat!), behavior, and topics that made me feel more informed about my actions.

Even though my foster kittens moved on after two months, a lot of it came in handy for helping make those two months successful and convincing me that there was so much good in having kittens around. So, once that batch left, I would get a few more and do it again! And again, and again. Fast forward ten years, and I'm pretty comfortable with any situation a kitten can throw at me! I took all of those original scraps of paper notes and mixed them with all the great wisdom I have since acquired, and this book came out.